Finsbury Park grinds to a halt in EA's £20K free fuel frenzy

'Might be' environmentally irresponsible, company tells TechRadar

Since early this morning, the Last Stop garage in Finsbury Park, north London, has become a gridlocked nightmare as motorists queue to grab their share of £20,000 worth of free fuel, courtesy of EA and the launch of Mercenaries 2: World In Flames.

Allowing drivers £40 of gratis petrol each, EA appear to be attempting to recreate the kind of carnage that acts as the backdrop for the Venezuela-set game, in which fuel is a commodity worth killing for.

While there have been no fatalities as yet, things were getting pretty fraught around 7.30am, reported BBC News as the rush hour began, and snarled up motorists and local residents failed to recognise EA's generosity.

'Might be irresponsible'

An EA spokesperson told Techradar: "We've had a couple of calls, you always will with anything like this, but anyone who queues up to get the petrol doesn't seem to mind.

"From an environmental point of view it might be irresponsible, but it's not for us to get bogged down in it all – it's just meant as a goodwill thing."

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told TechRadar that they were "aware of the event and monitoring the situation," adding, "we can't really say much more about the event right now, except our feelings about it are probably the same as yours."

TechRadar has contacted a number of other games publishers this morning, none of whom were willing to go on record criticising Electronic Arts' and its irresponsible PR stunt. We have also polled a number of self-styled 'PR gurus', so stay tuned for updates on this story throughout the day.